operations is improved speed of Soviet subs. 7 July A Royal Air Force (RAF) Vickers Varsity T.1 WJ914 collides at 1500 ft near RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom with a RAF de Havilland Vampire T11 XD549, all six occupants of the Varsity and two in the Vampire died. 14 July Lockheed U-2A, 56-6720, Article 387, the 27th airframe of the first USAF production batch, delivered in October 1957 and assigned to the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Laughlin AFB, Texas, as a "ferret" aircraft, crashes this date in the early morning ~30 miles NE of Laughlin. Pilot Maj. Raleigh Myers experiences an oxygen fire in the cockpit after a pressure-reducing switch fails, ignited by the 24-volt power supply line to the switch. He bails out at , escaping safely. The oxygen supply system is subsequently redesigned. 19 July In the wake of the Congo Crisis, a Belgian Air Force (BAF) Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcar, CP36, c/n 11083, crashes into a mountain in Rushengo near Goma after an engine caught fire. 41 were killed. 27 July North American F-100C Super Sabre, reported as 53-1740, assigned to the USAF Thunderbirds on 28 March 1960, is destroyed this date during a solo proficiency flight when it crashes fifty miles from Nellis AFB, Nevada, killing Capt. John R. Crane, team narrator. Joe Baugher lists this serial as shot down by gunfire 14 March 1969, in Southeast Asia. Confirmation needed. 12 August RAF Vickers Valiant BK.1 XD864 crashes at RAF Spanhoe 3 minutes after takeoff from RAF Wittering, Cambs. Five crew were killed. 6 September A North American GAM-77 Hound Dog missile launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress over the Eglin Air Force Base, Florida test range at ~2 p.m. goes astray, coming down on a farm near Samson, Alabama. Lt. Col. Gerry Garner, Eglin Air Force Base public information director, stated that an investigation was underway into the errant missile's failure. The vertical fin was torn off in turbulence. The ECM operator and tail gunner were killed. 31 January Sikorsky HSS-1N Seabat, 140 and 145, both from 8 Squadron of the Royal Netherlands Navy, both ditch near Gibraltar and are lost. 1 February Over 200 are injured and 73 killed when a Türk Hava Kuvvetleri (Turkish Air Force) Douglas C-47 Skytrain, CBK28, and a Middle East Airlines Vickers 745D Viscount turboprop airliner, OD-ADE, collide in a cloud bank in the afternoon over Ankara, Turkey, the